Suspects’ families mull trial

Senior Khmer Rouge cadres gather in this undated photo. Facing forward from the left: Pol Pot, Nuon Chea, Ieng Sary, Son Sen and Vorn Vet. The initial hearing in the trial of KR leaders Nuon Chea, Khieu Samphan, Ieng Sary and Ieng Thirith begins on Monday at the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia. (PHOTO COURTESY OF THE DOCUMENTATION CENTRE OF CAMBODIA)

Nuon Chea (right) and his wife, Ly Kimseng, visit Angkor Wat in this undated file photo. (Photo supplied)

So Socheat, Khieu Samphan's wife (Photo: AP)

Friday, 24 June 2011
Thet Sambath
The Phnom Penh Post

“I was with him at the time [that the Khmer Rouge were in power] – he had the right to welcome guests from overseas and offer them credentials, but had no power to decide anything ... I also want to know who killed Cambodians, but please don’t just make accusations against all people in the Khmer Rouge.” (sic!) - So Socheat, Khieu Samphan's wife

As the Khmer Rouge tribunal gears up for the initial hearing in its historic second case on Monday, the court appears to have made significant inroads with the Cambodian public.

A study released by the University of California-Berkeley School of Law’s Human Rights Centre earlier this month found that some 75 percent of respondents interviewed this past December reported being at least somewhat aware of the work of the court, compared with 61 percent in 2008.

A total of 81 percent said the court “will help promote national reconciliation”, a 14 percent increase from 2008.

Nuon Chea's Wife: 'I Miss Him' [Relatives of KR victims: We miss our loved ones killed by the KR also]

Win Thida, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
05 October 2007

Rigth: Ly Kimseng says she had not been separated at length from her husband, Nuon Chea, until his detention by the Khmer Rouge tribunal in September. (Photo by Win Thida)

The worried wife of the Khmer Rouge's chief ideologue arrived in Phnom Penh Friday, expecting next week to meet her husband, who is being held by the tribunal courts on atrocity crimes.

"I miss him," Ly Kimseng told VOA Khmer. "When we are apart for the first time like this, I am sad about him living this way, about his eating food, his sleep."

Under the policies of the Khmer Rouge, hundreds of thousands of families were separated into various agricultural work camps—children cut off from their parents, husbands kept from their wives, all made to work for the Angkar, the Organization. Nuon Chea faces charges that he helped design these policies.

Ly Kimseng said she had been given permission to visit her husband on Monday. She planned to bring him religious books and "some shirts." She was concerned over his reportedly high blood pressure and his overall health, a concern shared by tribunal observers, who fear the aging leaders of the regime will never see trial.

"He usually does not feel well," Ly Kimseng said. "He often chokes [on his food] and I am worried about this. When he is by himself, no one helps him, and if I could stay near him, I would see and would leap up and help him."

Nuon Chea has been receiving top medical care since his Sept. 19 detention. But the general health of the 82-year-old man is failing. His high blood pressure prevented a session of questioning by investigating judges in September.

"We have never been separated before, and I miss him because he is old, and he has difficulty walking," Ly Kimseng said. "I am concerned that when he has to go to the bathroom, he might fall down. I miss him. We lived in our house, just the two of us.... Since our marriage, this is the first time we have been apart."

Nuon Chea is still seeking a foreign lawyer, preferably one who speaks Thai, Ly Kimseng said, adding that she wanted to see a hearing for her husband as soon as possible.

"It all depends on his health," she said. "I would like for it to happen soon, so that it will be over soon too, to be over right away, to see black and white, so that it will be clear. At the hearing, he will speak the truth, and he will not say something just to get off the hook."